Eighty percent of Austin ISD students passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills this year, an important state standardized test used to rank school districts. It’s the first time AISD met that benchmark.

School board members will hear from staff on the preliminary TAKS results during tonight’s school board meeting. The school district provided a faxed copy of the PowerPoint presentation to KUT News.

The presentation shows the school district has made gains in closing achievement gaps, a term used to describe disparities in academic performance among whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, and economically disadvantaged students. For example, African-American and Hispanic students narrowed the achievement gap by an average of about 20 percentage points.

But AISD expects more schools will fail state academic accountability standards than last year, when only one campus – Eastside Memorial’s Green Tech High – received the lowest ranking of “academically unacceptable.” The Austin American-Statesman quotes Superintendent Meria Carstarphen as saying a “handful” of campuses will miss state standards.

Part of the reason is that state Education Commissioner Robert Scott decided to abandon the Texas Projection Measure following pressure from lawmakers. The TPM gave school districts credit for students who failed, as long as they were statistically predicted to pass in the future.

Tonight’s meeting starts at 6 pm with a public hearing on redistricting. The TAKS presentation is scheduled for 8:50 pm. The meeting is open to the public at 1111 W. 6th St. You can also watch it on Time Warner Cable channel 22 or stream it online.

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A contentious calculation used by the state to measure academic performance at schools will be abandoned, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott announced today. The Texas Projection Measure (TPM) counted some students as passing, even if they failed, as long as they were algorithmically predicted to pass in the future. TPM had long drawn the ire of conservative business leaders, minority education activists and progressive policy groups.